I go to the spare room doorway. He's in the bed, blanket pulled up.
"Can Boots sleep in here?"
Boots is already in the room. She's been in the room. She looks at me from her spot on the floor like she's waiting for me to catch up. She thumps her tail, claiming the spot.
"Looks like she already decided," I say.
“Okay," he says, and closes his eyes.
I pull the door most of the way shut and stand in the hall for a second. His truck is on the windowsill. His three pebbles. The blue jay feather. Lined up in whatever order makes sense to him, which is the only order that matters.
I go back to the kitchen. Hallie hasn’t moved, legs tucked under her, mug still in her hands. The cabin is quiet. Outside the valley has gone full dark and the only sound is the woodstove doing its thing.
We don't talk much. She leans her head back and closes her eyes and I sit in the chair across from her and watch the fire and think about the way she saidhe's with usin the grocery store aisle like it was just true, like it had always been true.
My phone buzzes on the table.
I look at it and then hold it out to her. Three words from Danny:Got him. Warrant arrest.
She reads it. When she turns back her eyes are bright but she's not going to cry — she's through that, or past it, something. She just looks at me.
"Thank you," she says.
I cross the kitchen and she meets me halfway.
seven
Hallie
Hemeetsmeinthe middle of the kitchen and I put my hands on his chest and look up at him and say the only thing that's true right now.
"Thank you. For all of it. The trail, the cabin, the crackers." I pause. "For making it feel safe to breathe."
He looks at me for a moment. His hands come up to my face, both of them, tilting me toward him.
"I intend to show you what it looks like when a real man takes care of his family," he says. Low. Certain. Like it's already decided.
Family.
Then he kisses me and I stop thinking.
His hands are in my hair and I'm already pulling his shirt up and we're moving down the hall without deciding to. He gets the bedroom door shut and I get his shirt off and he walks me back to the bed and comes down over me.
"Hallie."
"Don't stop," I tell him.
He gets my shirt over my head and unhooks my bra and then he just looks at me. I don't cover up or redirect, like I have in the past. I lie there in the low light and let him see me and feel the difference between this and every other time a man has looked at me.
Then he puts his mouth on my breast. His mouth on my nipple, tongue and teeth, while his hand slides into my jeans and finds me already wet and I gasp at the ceiling. Two fingers push inside me and his thumb circles my clit and he works me like he has all night, steady and relentless, reading every sound I make and doing more of whatever caused it.
"Harder," I tell him.
I come with my hand fisted in his hair and my hips grinding against his hand and it rolls through me in long waves and he doesn't ease off until I'm pulling at his shoulders saying “Now, I want you now!”
I get his jeans off while he sorts that out and then I wrap my hand around his cock and stroke him slowly and watch his jaw go tight.
"You're killing me," he says.
